This Week According to Instagram….

Overall a pretty good, busy week – lots of outside play time, whole fist sucking and prepping for the Indy 500! We’re especially excited now that dad is done teaching for the summer!

Follow me on Instagram: @melmatto

Tags: Instagram

5! 6! 7! 8!

I cheered all four years of high school. I cheered all four years of college. I was a cheerleading summer camp instructor every summer throughout college. For the past three years I was an assistant cheer coach at a high school right now down the street from us. So I guess you could say I have a thing for cheerleading. Most people that meet me find this surprising because while I may be stereotypically blonde, I am not a loud, overly energetic person that you would assume the type of person who has had cheerleading in their life for the past 14 years would be. No one ever meets me and goes, “she totally was cheerleader.” In fact, while I’m perfectly fine performing in groups, I do not like the be the lone soul in front of a big group of people. But get me around my cheer friends and you can bet your glittery pom pons we’ll stunt and break out an 8 count dance or two. Friends wedding, 2 and a half years ago this happened:

My senior year of college my sorority (yes, i also was a sorority girl – gasp!) had an informal called “When I Grow Up.” As the name implies, you dress up as what you hope your career or life will epitomize post college. Of course everyone dresses up to the extreme and some people just make up something to be funny, like my roommate who dressed as Monica Lewinsky because she idolizes Bill Clinton. Yes, I can’t believe I just typed that either. My costume was a way too enthusiastic “cheer mom.” I wore my child’s medals and a bow as big as my head, the back of my shirt said something about how much better my kid is than yours and I carried a doll that sang these ridiculously high squealed chants that I still have memorized. Flash forward 4 and a half years later and here I am posing with the trophy our high school squad just won at a cheer competition. Cheer coach and not cheer mom, but still I can’t believe I did it. I actually became who I jokingly dressed up as. Fake pregnant definitely looks better on me than real pregnant, but I won’t dawdle on that. And by the way, this was taken 3 days before P was born! Maybe all the chanting got him excited!

So now that Parker is here I joke to Eric all the time about how I’m going to put him in dance classes so he can become a male cheerleader. Eric does not think it is very funny, in fact even if we have a daughter some day, we will be fighting about this. So I express how anti-cheerleader Eric is to say the other day I dressed Parker without thinking but immediately realized afterwards that his outfit reminded me of something. Reminded me of a certain uniform if you will. Caddy at golf club? No. Manager at a beach resort? No. Cheerleading camp instructor? Oh yes!

I mean, I seriously almost changed him because I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t look at this outfit as anything other than him standing on stage getting the campers riled up over a rendition of “Boom Chicka Boom.” But instead of changing him, I took this as an opportunity to embarrass Eric because that’s what all good wives do. While I was really hoping to find the camp outfit that we wore that matches his (except the polo is sleeveless) I couldn’t find it anywhere….but I did find the uniform we would have to wear on the last day of every camp as we hand out awards, etc. I’m not sure if I’m more surprised that I found it or that it actually still fit. Either way a mini photo shoot was warranted.

But overall I think it’s safe to say he did not enjoy his 15 minutes of cheerleading. So Eric this round goes to you!

Sorry Parker! Love you!

Tags: Baby boy cheerleader, cheerleading, pi beta phi informal, UCA camp instructor, UCA cheerleading, when I grow up informal

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

Yesterday was finally the perfect weather I had been waiting for! I’ve been so excited for Parker to experience his first “pool.” A drink bucket we received for a wedding present worked perfectly. I tried to teach him to splash and play with his toys but he was only interested in eating his soapy hands. Oh well! But he must have wore himself out because as soon as we came in I put him in some clothes and put him on the play mat so I could go change and by the time I got back this is what I saw!

I’d call it a success!

Tags: baby bathing, Baby in a bucket, baby pool

BFF

Earlier this month I decided to give Parker this stuffed bulldog/blanket thing to see if it would help him fall asleep faster when I put him down for a nap. Surprisingly, it worked! He seems to sleep a little longer too with something to hold on to. I was hesitant at first because there are times he likes to pull it by or over his face partially and that worried me, but I only give it to him during the day when I’m awake and have the video monitor right by me as I work. At night I’m still a stickler for nothing in the crib but him being swaddled. We (ok, I) affectionately named him Burgie after the town my husband teaches/coaches in since their school mascot is the Bulldogs. Parker of course doesn’t ask for him, but always seems happy when I hand him over so I think a bond is forming. Only time will tell, but it sure is cute to watch! What napping tactics have you tried?

Tags: bulldog blanket toy, Lovie, naptown

Mother’s Day Bliss

“Realize that your son will love you more intensely than anyone or anything else in the world”

“Read all the advice books and baby guides you want, but trust your instincts. They’re good.”

“His tears will break your heart. So will his smiles.”

“Don’t forget that as a baby, he will always be looking for your face. It will be this way forever.”

Thank you E & P for giving me a wonderful first Mother’s Day. We did a whole lot of nothing but spend time together at home, which was just what I wanted. This whole mom thing, it’s alright I tell you.

(quotes from “Mother to Son: Shared Wisdom from the Heart”)

Tags: mother and son quotes, mother to son shared wisdom from the heart, Mother's Day

Any Typical Night

this is what you would find…

….just a dad and his wolf pack waiting for their next meal

Tags: Family night

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Today we started our afternoon with a little backyard flower picking. Our kitchen table needed a little beautifying. Handling a baby, garden shears and thorny roses all at the same time (not to mention taking the pictures myself) wasn’t the easiest task. But P and I, we got er’ done. We’re a pretty good team, he and I.

Tags: afternoon shenanigans, Gardening with baby, kitchen table flowers